The Illinois Supreme Court is considering a case that is likely to determine whether out-of-state engineers can testify as expert witnesses in the state courts.
The case, Thompson v. Gordon, involves a traffic accident in 1998 that killed Corinne Thompson's husband and daughter.
Thompson is suing two engineering firms, Jack E. Leisch and Associates Inc. and CH2M Hill Inc., for negligence in designing improvements to a section of road near the accident site.
During pretrial motions, Thompson's attorney, David G. Pribyl of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard in Waukegan, Ill., filed the affidavit of Andrew Ramisch, a Washington, D.C.-based engineer who was retained as an expert witness to review the engineering work. Ramisch's affidavit said CH2M Hill's work was deficient.
The trial court struck the affidavit, ruling that Ramisch lacked the Illinois professional engineer's license necessary to serve as an expert witness.
While the state's high court has previously upheld sanctions levied by the state's Department of Financial and Professional Regulation against out-of-state engineers for offering services in Illinois, it has never before ruled on the admissibility of expert testimony from an unlicensed engineer.
"It could create shockwaves if it were to extend beyond this case and this engineer," said Steven Lubet, a professor at Northwestern University's law school who specializes in litigation. "It could really be disruptive."
Courts in other states, including Michigan and Indiana, have ruled that licensure is not an absolute requirement for expert witnesses, Pribyl said.
In Illinois, state law allows some professionals, including doctors, to testify without an Illinois license. In other instances, statutes do not specifically address whether serving as an expert witness requires a license
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